


The Trick Shot in the Doorway

by CommanderBunnBunn



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Cold Open Challenge, Explosions, Gen, Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016) Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:55:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25176514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CommanderBunnBunn/pseuds/CommanderBunnBunn
Summary: The detonator doesn't go off like it's supposed to.Cold open challenge, improvise day
Relationships: Jack Dalton & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 32





	The Trick Shot in the Doorway

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so I cheated. I wrote this over a year ago, before I started "writing." I was just kinda spitballing in a whump chat while making lasagna, then copy and pasted it into a google doc a few months later. This was the perfect time to use it because I just wanted the whump without a plot and didn't want to work on a fleshed out ending.

Mac and Jack ran out of the room to take cover in the hallway on the opposite side of the firewall just as the bomb was supposed to explode. They covered their ears, hunkered down, and waited, but there was no explosion.

Mac stood up and headed back toward the doorway when Jack grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back, "what do you think you're doing, hoss, there's a bomb in there waiting to explode?"

"I know, Jack, but my detonator should have already set it off by now. I know the calculations were correct. I have to see what happened and fix it."

"No!" Jack blocked his path and Mac went around him. "Just...no." Jack spun Mac to face him, trying to cut the tension and talk some sense into his boy. "What if you touch something and it blows up in your face. I can't watch you die like some kind of Wylie Coyote cartoon."

"If we don't set it off, the bad guys will get what they came for, then they'll catch up to us, and THEN they'll fill us with holes." Mac sighed, exasperated. 

His partner snickered, "Like Daffy Duck. I like when his bill gets blown all the way around to the back of his head."

"Dammit Jack, this is not the time." the blonde paused and made a face like he had an epiphany, "but you did give me an idea."

Jack leaned his back against the wall and crossed his ankles with a smug and knowing smile. He knows exactly which buttons to push to get his little genius to come up with a brilliant resolution. 

"Do you think you could shoot the detonator from this far away? Jostling it may be the catalyst it needs to set off the bomb."

"Son, a bullet is more than a jostle," Jack timidly peeked into the door at the device, "but I can hit that, no problem."

"From here, I mean. On this side of the wall, with only your gun inside the door frame" Mac's voice was more and more defeated as he spoke.

"So basically you want me to make a trick shot, while blindfolded. Is that what you're getting at."

"Yeah, I guess so." Mac's shoulders drooped.

"No problem. I can line up the shot from just inside the door, then come back out here and fire when ready." Neither of them had any doubts about Jack's marksmanship, but Mac didn't want to put too much pressure on him. That small of a target, at that distance, with no line of sight was a lot to ask. 

Jack stepped just inside the doorway and lined up the shot holding the gun with just his left hand. He'd shot lefty at the range many times, but not necessarily one handed and extended out like that. He checked the alignment with both hands on the gun straight out in front of him to make sure he wasn't over correcting-- when the bomb detonated on it's own.

The blast slammed Jack backward into the metal doorframe, and he ricocheted like a pinball to the other side of the doorframe and into the hallway.

Mac wasn't sure what was happening, but he saw his best friend crash to the floor. "Shit. Jack, you were supposed to wait. Jack?" When there was no answer, he tried to fan away the smoke cloud with his hands to assess the situation.

Mac crouched and shimmied the few steps toward his partner and saw he was out cold. There was blood coming from his nose and left ear. "Shit." He began to panic. "Jack" He nudged his shoulders and got no response. "Come on, man." He checked the back of Jack's head, his fingers came back covered with blood. The bile was rising in his throat, but he had to get them out of there and soon. They may have been about the same height, but Jack had at least 40 pounds of muscle and bulk over Mac.

He grabbed his partner under the armpits and dragged him backward as best he could. Jack's head hung forward and lulled from side to side with each step Mac took. He could see the gash on the back of his head, and it only made him feel worse, there had to be a better way to move him. 

At the end of the hallway, Mac stopped and grabbed his phone, but it had already been destroyed earlier on the mission. Defeated, he sighed and went to Jack's pocket to discover that not only was his partner's phone shattered from the impact, but there was a piece of metal sticking out of his thigh and another in his side. Mac was momentarily thankful the TAC vest prevented any penetrating central damage. 

"Dammit!" Mac tugged at his blonde hair in frustration. He had to get them both out of there, down from the 3rd floor, and to exfil, hopefully before being discovered by the people they were trying to elude and sabotage. 

The fire suppression system kicked on, giving away their location if the explosion itself hadn't already, so Mac's window for escape narrowed significantly. He thought of gathering some materials from the room he'd just exploded to fashion a stokes basket to get Jack down the stairs, but he was at the "preserving life over limb" stage at that point. 

"Jack! Come on." He hollered while firmly pinching the space between Jack's neck and shoulder looking for a reaction. "Please don't make me drag you down these stairs." 

He placed two fingers on Jack's pulse point on his neck, needing that reassurance. He attempted to rouse him one last time for good measure. "Jack! Wake up!" 

Mac threaded his arms under Jack's from the back and locked them across the front of Jack's chest. He hoisted his partner up until Jack's head could rest against Mac's neck and shoulder for slightly more stability. He walked backward down the stairs as quickly as he could, cringing every time Jack's boots hit the next step down with a loud thud. Once he finally reached the bottom of the stairs, he readjusted his grip and pulled his partner backward out the door without even checking for hostiles first. Their vehicle was parked nearby, so he quickly took cover behind it, laying jack on the ground by the back door. Mac went immediately to Jack's preferred pocket for car keys and fished them out, thankful that knowing such weirdly intimate personal habits once again helped them on a mission. 

Remaining crouched low, he opened the driver door, shoved the key into the ignition, and started the engine. Mac dropped to his knees, placing his hands firmly on either side of Jack's neck almost yelling, "Jack, you stubborn asshole, get up." If being dragged roughly down the stairs didn't wake him, Mac knew his attempt was futile, but he desperately needed that connection. He preyed on Jack's sense of loyalty, "How are you supposed to watch my back when you're sleeping on the job?" 

The blood on his face had already dried, too much time had passed with a concussion, still oozing head wound, and two penetrating traumas. Exfil was only 5 minutes away, but the medevac would have to be notified in the air to set up a rendezvous point to triage and stabilize for the trip to Phoenix medical; the nearest hospital was less than 10 minutes away, part of the important geographical information Jack insists on being briefed on before each mission because he's still a "keep a map in the glove compartment kind of guy" because "Skynet becomes self aware and fights back."

If the roles were reversed, Jack would take Mac to the nearest hospital instead of waiting, but he'd do that for anything on Mac he couldn't patch up himself with the contents of a basic first aid kit. Jack had been through worse, way worse, and let it ride. If he could ask Jack, he would tell him to wait it out and that he was fine, but the fact that he couldn't ask him meant he wasn't fine. At all. 

Mac had always been known for his quick solutions and decision making skills, so he was wasting way too much time on this. Make up your fucking mind. He couldn't dress the wounds because of the metal sticking out, couldn't pull them out because they would bleed more. Obvious concussion and head wound. Unwise to delay treatment. But it's a civilian hospital, how could they explain the explosion and the weapons without giving up everything. The hostiles could track them down and put a lot of innocent people in danger. Fuck. They needed to go to exfil.

"Ok, if you don't wake up to tell me otherwise, I'm taking you to the hospital down the road." Mac looked at his partner expectantly, surely that would get him up, but it didn't. He wanted to keep an eye on Jack no matter where they ended up driving, but the front seat was out of the question since the stupid sedan had 2 individual seats separated by a plastic center console. Sitting him up like that would only make everything worse.

He climbed into the back on his knees to pull Jack in and across the back seat and was still met with no resistance. Mac crawled out of the other door to get Jack settled in. He removed and balled up his own jacket to use as a pillow and rolled Jack onto his right side. Being in the light, he noticed the small cuts and scratches all over Jack's arm as he folded it across his chest and away from the protruding metal in his side. He pulled his partner's knees toward him to fit his legs into the car which drew Mac's eyes to the blood glistening all over Jack's clothes. Thankfully, exfil was only 5 minutes away. The superficial injuries looked intimidating, but he was most worried about that head wound. His lax face and darkening circles under his eyes made up Mac's mind; The Phoenix would just have to clean their mess at the local hospital later.

**Author's Note:**

> And Jack got better and was just fine, like always. The end.
> 
> If anyone wants to write the comfort/hospital/healing part, be my guest. I'm just supplying the whump today.


End file.
